Philip l



- (No Model.) i P. L. SYLVESTBR.

W Manufacture of Buttons from Plastic Material.

No. 231,372. Patented Aug. 17,1880.

N.FE|'F.R5. PHOTO-UTHOGRAPNER. WASHKNGTON. D c

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PHILIP L. SYLVESTEE, OF AUBURN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO VVOODRUFF BROTHERS, OF SAME PLACE.

MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS FROM PLASTIC MATERIALS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 231,372, dated August 17, 1880. Application filed July 21, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PHILIP L. SYLvEsrEE,

of Auburn, in the county of Cayuga, and in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Buttons from Plastic Material; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact-description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a sheet of plastic material prepared for application to the dies. Fig. 2 is a cross section of the same, and Fig. 3 is a like view of a sheet having a 1 slightly different arrangement of the corrugations.

Letters of like name and kind refer to like parts in each of the figures.

In the manufacture of buttons from plastic material it has heretofore been customary to apply such material to the dies in the form of balls containing each sufficient material for one button, and applied separately to each die, or by cutting said material into strips and placing one of the same upon each row of dies of a plate, either of which methods of filling the dies consumed considerable time.

The design of my invention is to enable all of the diesof a plate to be simultaneously filled and to this end it consists, as an improvement in the manufacture of buttons from plastic material, in a sheet of such material provided upon and within one face or both of its faces with alternate ribs and grooves, substantially 3 5 as and for the purpose hereinafter specified.

In the use of my invention the plastic material is cut into sheets A, that correspond in size and shape horizontally to the like features of the plates of dies upon which they are to be 0 used, and have such thickness as may be necessary for the production of the buttons for which said dies are designed.

During the operation of rolling the material into sheets or at any subsequent time I give to one face or both faces of each sheet A the 5 form shown in Fig. 1, the same being alternating ribs to and grooves a, that correspond, respectively, in transverse position to the rows of dies and the spaces between the same of a die plate or mold. The sheet A is now softened in the usual manner, and placed upon the face of a lower die-plate with the ribs or over the rows of dies and the grooves a over the spaces between such rows, after which the upper die is placed in position and pressure applied, when it is found that after filling said dies so little stock remains that the said grooves or sprues between said rows of dies will easily contain the same and permit the plates to close together and to produce perfect buttons.

It is not essential that both faces of the sheet A should be grooved, as the result will be the same when but one side is'grooved, the essential featul e being the removal of surplus stock from that portion of the sheet over the sprues.

Having thus fully set forth the nature and merits of my invention, what I claim as new 1s As an improvement in the manufacture of buttons from plastic material, a sheet of such 7o material provided upon and within one face or both of its faces with alternate ribs and grooves, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 12th day of July, 1850.

Witnesses: PHILIP L. SYLVESTER.

GEo. S. PRINDLE, E. D. WOODRUFF. 

